150 Years Ago
All sorts: Sleighing parties were out. The ladies of the company were noticeably merry and musical. Fair skaters were out exercising on the ice at the racetrack.
140 Years Ago
Effects of the cold snap: A water pipe snapped in the residence belonging to Mr. B, a prominent citizen. Immediately thereafter water rushed into the rooms with a fearful velocity and woke up the head of the household. Rubbing his eyes and waking himself, he saw that the rush of water must be stopped. He started out to see John Kersey, Clerk of the Water Company. Mr. B was in his nightshirt and a pair of slippers. People in the street thought it was a comet — his nightdress floating in the cold breeze being taken for the comet’s tail. Then a pack of dogs followed, barking and snapping at him. The noise aroused the police who also joined the chase. The officer ordered Mr. B to stop, and when he didn’t, fired a shot hitting him in the fleshy part of the thigh. Mr. B gave the policemen a fearful kick in the abdomen and as he kicked, his foot pushed a hole through the plastering in the wall. That awakened him to find the whole thing — a dream.
120 Years Ago
Bowers’ Mansion explosion: The hot water boiler and brick furnace exploded on Monday at 7:30 a.m. in Mrs. Read’s kitchen with tremendous force, demolishing the furnace, boiler and hurling pieces of the stove in all directions. They struck Mrs. Read, broke her right arm and burned and scalded her lower limbs badly.
A little daughter of John D. Winters, aged eight years, was passing through the room at that time and received a compound fracture of both bones half way between the wrist and elbow. Dr. Dawson was telegraphed and arrived on the late mail train. The little girl is severely hurt. It has been only two months since her mother died in Fresno, California.
100 Years Ago
Tag day, January 30th: The school children, bent on no depletion of the coal, will be engaged in attaching to each and every coal shovel in the land a tag, which is meant to remind the owner that it is all but important to save every ounce of coal possible in order that the war may be won. The tag will read, “Save that shovel full of coal a day for Uncle Sam.” The plan is to provide a liberal education to the children in conservation.
70 Years Ago
Advertisement: “Carson Hot Springs — Chicken, turkey or ham with all the trimmings (Cocktail, soup, salad, desert, hot bread and jelly; tea, coffee or milk) $1.50 — as long as it lasts and we last. Old Timers Night is Friday… Whoop it up at the Springs. Dine, dance, swim, play, sip ‘em or just loaf. You are welcome. Dick Waters, Prop.”
20 Years Ago
Feather-like features: Two well-preserved specimens of a carnivorous dinosaur were unearthed by Chinese scientists. ossils show skin, internal organs, unlaid eggs and a covering in something like feathers. Chinese scientists have struck the fossil equivalent of pure gold.
Sue Ballew is the daughter of Bill Dolan, who wrote this column for the Nevada Appeal from 1947 until his death in 2006.
